1st Mariner Arena (still hard not to call it Baltimore Arena) has really been stepping up its game lately. A couple weeks ago, the arena announced that Bruce Springsteen will play there for his first Baltimore show since 1973, when he opened for Chicago. Yeah, The Boss is also playing in D.C., but 1st Mariner will be one of the smaller venues on his tour.

Today it was just announced that hip-hop heavyweight Jay-Z will also be performing at the arena this fall as apart of a "College Arena Tour" to promote his latest album, Blueprint 3. His October 27 Baltimore show looks unique to the tour, as most venues are stadiums on college campuses, from Penn State to UMass to University of Texas, Austin.

According to the press release, there are 21 dates confirmed (which you can view here). Additionally, Jay-Z will hold a charity concert at Madison Square Garden on September 11, where 100 percent of the concert's proceeds will go to the New York Police & Fire Widows and Children's Benefit Fund.

Tickets for the Baltimore show go on sale September 11 at 10 a.m. and can be purchased at livenation.com. Can't wait to see who's going to play the arena next!

[Photo: courtesy of wired.com]

Hope everyone enjoyed the live-blogging yesterday. I wanted to see a couple more acts than I did, but jumping around from stage-to-stage was a little more difficult (and more hilly!) than I thought.

This year's Virgin FreeFest had a lot of positives. I preferred Merriweather as a venue to Pimlico because the layout was more open than it was at the racetrack. You felt like there was more to explore as you walked the distances between stages. Also there was a lot more shade. Not that it was such a big deal yesterday, but the sun was always beating down on fans at Pimlico.

I also liked the idea of three sizable stages for bands to perform on. This made it so there was enough room for people to watch Public Enemy on the West Stage, while plenty of people could also watch Jet at the pavilion. It spread out the masses. I also liked the dance stage instead of tent—it gave people more room to do their thing and the stage was lined with woods and trees, adding to the ambiance of DJ sets, pictured.

There were a couple of issues yesterday, though. In order for fans to get into the pavilion (where most of the the bigger acts were playing), they had to wait in long lines twisting around the grounds. People were frustrated by the fact that they had to wait in line after already entering the venue. Also, the line-up could have used more musical variety. Because of bands like Blink-182, Taking Back Sunday, and The Bravery, the crowd was made up of a lot of teenagers. A more classic act definitely would have mixed up the crowd and the sounds.

But overall the event was extremely well-organized. Everything pretty much went on-schedule and I never felt too overly crowded, even though there were about 30,000 people in attendance. That's a huge testament to the festival organizers.

The biggest plus of all, though, was the fact that it was all free. It still blows my mind that so much music was available to so many people for no money at all. I got a chance to talk to Hold Steady guitarist Tad Kubler about the idea of the economy's affect on the music culture.

"Over the last year, year-and-a-half, we've made a concerted effort to try and keep ticket costs and charges down," Kubler said about The Hold Steady. "We've been working with our booking agent to try and find creative ways to avoid some of the exorbitant charges that come along with ticketing." Some of these creative ways, he explains, have a lot to do with what kind of venues the band plays. "This past June, we did two nights at Bowery Ballroom and two nights at Williamsburg Music Hall, instead of one show at a bigger place like Terminal 5," he said. "We can do more shows at smaller clubs, where their operating costs are cheaper, so in turn the tickets are cheaper for our fans."

So it's safe to safe to say that playing a free festival with nearly 12 hours of music coincides with The Hold Steady's philosophy. And it's something that any music fan can appreciate.

[Image: courtesy of Francis Chung at dcist.com]

At 3:00 I checked out Taking Back Sunday's set. For those not familiar with the band, they play a screaming brand of pop punk that was a particular favorite of mine in high school. So it would make sense that a majority of the audience was made up of swooning teenage girls. Not much else has changed either. Lead singer Adam Lazzara still did a lot of fancy tricks with his microphone, while the rest of band head-banged their way through the show.

I especially appreciated songs off of their 2002 album Tell All Your Friends. The band even managed to work in part of Beyone's "Irreplaceable" into one of their bridges. Lazzara acknowledged the unique nature of the festival by saying, "This takes a lot of pressure off of us. If we mess up, it's okay, because you guys didn't pay."

Then I headed over to the secondary stage (or the West Stage) for The Hold Steady. The rock band sailed through their set, barely pausing between songs. They played favorites "Constructive Summer," "Sequestered in Memphis," "Stay Positive," "Chips Ahoy," and "Hoodrat Friend." Frontman Craig Finn had his usual giddy energy and the rest of the band mixed it up with double-neck guitars and accordions.

Though I think most of The Hold Steady's fans would prefer to see the band in an intimate club or bar setting, the band's contagious energy carried through in a festival scene. (I also got a chance to talk to the band's guitarist Tad Kubler, which I'll post tomorrow).

Then at 5:15 the dynamic duo of Chuck D and Flavor Flav, aka Public Enemy, took the West Stage. I saw Public Enemy, pictured, back in June at Bonnaroo and that show was very intense. Today it seemed like the two emcees were in a much more positive mood. Flavor Flav declared that he "found love" and that he has a new album coming out (where he sings!) to celebrate it.

Chuck D voiced his usual political messages while the group performed some of their most popular tracks, including "Don't Believe The Hype," "Can't Truss It," and "Fight The Power." Flavor Flav was all over the place, stage diving, climbing the scaffolding, and even getting behind the drums and the end of the set.

Now I'm going to fight my way through the masses (it got so crowded!) to dance to some Girl Talk and rock out middle-school style to Blink-182. More to come.

[Image: courtesy of boston.com]

I just arrived at the press tent for the Virgin Mobile FreeFest at Merriweather Post Pavilion. Today I'll be reviewing various bands and bringing you some backstage interview coverage, as well.

After they released the line-up, I had to do the typical dance of prioritizing which acts to see. I decided I'm going to check out Mates of State, Taking Back Sunday, The Hold Steady, Public Enemy, Girl Talk, and Blink-182. I'm also going to try to fit in a little bit of Jet, Weezer, and Franz Ferdinand.

So far, only one celebrity sighting: Richard Branson was hanging out with some press and some festival go-ers by the leather couches in the press tent. He was just hanging like it was no big deal, which coincides with the whole accessibility vibe of the FreeFest.

So check back throughout the day for live updates of the Virgin Mobile FreeFest—I think it's safe to say that the shows will be well worth the admission price.

[Image: courtesy of virginmobilefestival.com]